I haven't to the pottery studio (Kirkgate Studios and Workshops http://www.ksandw.org.uk/) since before Christmas.
My intention was to go and work for the morning - but I was having such a good time, I stayed all day!
The images are of a series of 'pottery paintings' that I am working on. Many of the potters in the studio focus on making vessels or 'pots' - but I am more drawn to making pictures in clay. No doubt this is due to my background in painting and printmaking.
Once they are glazed and fired - the colours are permanent and they are sort of indestructible. I am used to working on paper and canvas that is very fragile - this property intrigues me...they won't ever fade!!
The braid motif (or 'plait' as they say in the UK) is one that I've only started exploring recently.
I think it has to do with having long hair now...one of the most intuitive things you can do with clay is roll it out into long pieces...
I know most of the followers of this blog will not be familiar with pottery, so I will explain some terminology.
This first picture shows a group that were finished before Xmas and have had their first firing - called a biscuit firing.
I've use Croxton clay here (which is grey in its unfired form) and sort of a pale pinky off-white colour once it has been fired. The white in these images is from a liquid clay called 'slip' that you can apply before the biscuit firing. Slip comes in all sorts of colours - there is also dark brown splattered on there.
The small one is a test tile - so I have something to test the glazes on at the next stage.
These ones have not been fired yet - the dark grey is black slip - relatively new, I don't think anyone else has tried it yet. These are ready for biscuit firing.
These are the ones I did today - the need to dry for about a week before they are ready for the first firing.
Some more in progress!
My colleague at work - she was using traditional terra cotta clay.
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